Well, I do want to thank all the saints for praying. I was in much worse condition Tuesday, I can tell you that. In fact, I told the brothers, “There’s no way I can make it Wednesday night.” I did make it Wednesday night, but I was pretty hoarse. But the Lord has been merciful, and I want to thank you for the prayers this week concerning my condition.
Let’s begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we just come to You this morning. We thank You, Lord, that You are not only our Savior; Lord, You are the triumphant One. Lord, You are the One on the throne.
And Lord, as our testimonies began this morning, we can look at all the conditions of this world and in our own lives, Lord, and yet we are encouraged to rejoice. The Lord is King, and He is over all things. And Lord, we will rejoice. We will rejoice in the God of our salvation.
Lord, indeed, You are worthy this morning, and we ask that You would just open our spirits, open our hearts. Lord, You would anoint the sharing of this word this morning and enable us to hear what You are saying to each one of us. We ask in Jesus’ name.
And the children of Israel sang this song:
I will sing unto the Lord,
For He hath triumphed gloriously:
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.
That was the response of the nation of Israel as they came through the Red Sea. The Lord, in the waters, destroyed the Egyptian army, and they were saved. This was their response: the Lord hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and rider hath He thrown into the sea.
Well, we have been talking about this matter of the Lord’s army—the Lord raising an army. You know, Ezekiel was brought to the valley, and as he looked over the valley, it was full of bones drying in the sun: the remains of a fallen army.
The Lord told him to speak the word of God to the bones. As he began to prophesy the word of God over these dry, dead bones—this fallen army that appeared would never fight again—the bones began to move and join together, and flesh began to come on the bones.
Then He said, “Ezekiel, prophesy to the wind.” He prophesied to the wind, and the wind began to stir. As the wind stirred, the soldiers became alive and began to awaken. The Lord sent the wind into the valley, and the breath of life was breathed back into them. The Lord had a mighty army once again.
That has been the burden as I have begun to share on this matter of spiritual warfare: that the Lord would not only have a testimony to Himself, His purpose, His life, and Who He is—a full testimony—but that His church would also be the instrument, the vessel through which, in the end, the enemy will be put out.
Now, the Lord Jesus has already accomplished that on Calvary’s cross. The enemy’s head has been wounded and suffered a death blow. But now we are executing that victory which the Lord won, here on earth, in the circumstances we face in everyday life, to bring all things into subjection to the feet of Jesus, because He is the Victor.
So that victory needs to be executed in our lives and on earth, and that is done through the church.
My first couple of messages were basically to awaken us again to the fact that there is a spiritual realm called the heavenlies. In that spiritual realm, a lot of activity is going on. I wanted us to be awakened, brothers and sisters: it is the heavens that do rule over the affairs of men.
In one of the messages, I brought out the story of Daniel. Remember, Daniel was praying, so concerned about the nation of Israel and where they were. He had prayed for three weeks, and finally a messenger showed up and said, “Daniel, I finally come.”
He said, “Three weeks ago, when you started praying, I started to come to give you the answer, but the prince of Persia, a prince of darkness of the dark realm, held me back. It was not until Michael the archangel came to help me that I was able to get free and come and deliver this message. But from the first day you began to pray, we heard you.”
Finally, the answer came because Daniel was persistent in prayer. Here you see the heavenly realm being brought to effect in earthly matters, and that connection seemed to be prayer.
That is where the church comes in, brothers and sisters: to bring what is determined in heaven down to earth, to make it real in our lives and in the life of the church.
Last week, I shared on one of the great principles of warfare: know your enemy. We talked about that briefly. He comes as an angel of light to deceive us. He comes as a lion, a roaring lion, to instill fear into your life and into your heart so that you will not resist him.
But the Word says to resist him, and he will flee. Brothers and sisters, how many people have been brought down through fear in their lives? It is the enemy’s work. He is a roaring lion. Brothers and sisters, it is very real if you have ever faced that roaring lion.
He is the god of this world, the god of the system—our educational system, our economic system, our political systems. He uses all these things to indoctrinate you into his way of thinking, to keep you under his control.
He is the accuser of the brethren. Brothers and sisters, I think we have all fallen under the wounds of accusations that just will not let up, because he is persistent. In Revelation 12, it says, praise the Lord, the accuser of the brethren has been cast down. But he is the accuser. He is your adversary. He is your personal adversary.
Once you became a Christian, brothers and sisters, he took notice of you. He does not want you to fulfill your divine destiny in Christ, and he will keep you from doing anything to serve the Lord and His purpose.
He is also known as the prince of the power of the air. We had one lesson on this: how the enemy was cast out of the mountain of God before the eternal throne, and he took residence in the atmosphere around this earth. That is why the Scripture says he is the prince of the power of the air. He is a lord of darkness.
So that kind of brings us quickly up to date. Today I want to share on two things. One is that not only do we need to know our enemy, we need to know ourselves. And we need to be prepared for the battle. We need to know the principles of warfare.
The next time I share, I will share on pulling down strongholds.
Let me begin by saying that when you first become a Christian, the first battle you really experience is a battle with your flesh. The Bible is very clear. It says the flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh.
In the beginning, things seem to go great with the Lord. You are full of love for the Lord, and you are rejoicing in that. But soon you begin to discover that there is a war going on inside of you. Your soul wants to do one thing, but your spirit wants to do another.
Your spirit wants to follow the will of God, but in my self-life I am still self-centered. I still want to live for myself, my desires, and my intentions instead of the Lord’s. We find this great struggle going on. This is our great battle.
I think one thing that will help us this morning in understanding this warfare and how to overcome is to look at the nation of Israel. As they went through the Red Sea, they were brought into the wilderness. Brothers and sisters, that is kind of where we first begin to experience this knowing of ourselves.
Let us look, first of all, at the battle. It is in Exodus 17:8-16. I use the King James, if that helps. It does not matter if it is worded a little differently.
This first battle that the nation of Israel experienced in the wilderness—they had not made it to the Promised Land yet—was the battle with the flesh.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side.
And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
That is their battle. It is a battle between the flesh and the Spirit, brothers and sisters. As we look into this, we find that it is the heavenlies that finally determine how the battle goes—not the strength of Joshua’s men, nor their skills, nor the power of the Amalekites.
There is this great battle that occurs. But before I talk more about that battle, we need to know why they were brought into the wilderness. We find that in Deuteronomy 8:2.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no.
Now, the Lord was not trying to figure out what was in their hearts. He already knew. It was the Israelites who did not know their hearts. That is why He said, “I brought you out here to humble you and prove you.”
You see, the self-life, the flesh, is very strong and confident, and it needs to be humbled. In fact, it needs to be brought down. He said, “I brought you out here to prove you. I am trying to prove to you what is there.”
I remember Paul. He was such a strong man—very educated, very eloquent, a very powerful speaker. Yet he is the one who said, “I have learned to have no confidence in my flesh.” That is what the Lord was trying to show them in the wilderness: that they could have no confidence in their flesh.
The battle is between spirit and soul, spirit and flesh.
Just to show you what He began to expose: remember, He delivered them from Egypt. They had to put the blood over their doorposts, and the next morning all the firstborn of Egypt had died except in those households where they had the blood over the door. It was a marvelous, miraculous deliverance by the power of the blood.
They had come under that blood in faith, trusting that if they put the blood over the door, the angel of destruction would not touch their house. It was a marvelous deliverance.
They came out of Egypt, and there were many of them. I read somewhere one time it was probably around a million. I do not know if that is true or not, so do not quote it. Some people say a hundred thousand. Now, I do not know. I really do not. But it was a lot who came out of Egypt from the few who first went in there.
They came out and got down to the Red Sea. After this marvelous deliverance, they saw the Egyptian army coming, and right away fear entered their hearts. They said, “What have you done? Why have you brought us here to die in this wilderness? We would have been better off remaining slaves in Egypt.”
You see their hearts? There was no confidence in the Lord, even after their miraculous deliverance. They were saying, “You just brought us out here to kill us.” Now, that is obviously ridiculous, but brothers and sisters, if you were put in the same situation, how would you be?
So the Lord was beginning to show them their own hearts—the flesh in their own hearts, their self-interest and self-preservation.
Three days later, they came to some water. They were beginning to run out of water, and the place was called Marah. But when they tried to taste the water, it was very bitter. Basically, there was death in the water.
Finally, a tree had to be cut down and thrown into the water, and the bitter waters were made drinkable. Of course, that speaks of Christ. We are in death, but through the tree of life, through Christ, we are brought back into life.
But unfortunately, the people said, “Why have you brought us here? We are going to perish because we have no water.” So the Lord was gracious, and He put the tree in there.
Then they went on into the wilderness, and they began to murmur because they were getting hungry. They were running out of food. You would think that maybe by this time they would say, “We need to go to the Lord and tell Him we are running out of food. Lord, You are the great Provider. We need Your provision.”
But they did not do that. They just murmured. They said, “Look, it is obvious. You brought us out here to starve us to death in the desert. We would have been better off in Egypt.”
The Lord gave them manna. He was trying to teach them that full confidence and dependence on Him is the only way you can live in the wilderness. You have to depend on Christ, not yourself.
They had no way of generating water. They had no way of making food. But the Lord gave them this superfood called manna. Think about it: that manna had all the nutrition they needed to function well, not get sick, and be healthy. I call it the superfood.
What was this superfood? Of course, we know Christ is our manna from heaven, and that is why we need to learn to feed on Him. But brothers and sisters, it is so interesting that later on they got tired of the manna. Remember, it says they despised the manna. They thought little of it. It was common. They wanted meat.
So the Lord sent them quail. They were full of meat, but it also said the Lord sent leanness into their souls. Brothers and sisters, our flesh is so strong. Our flesh just does not want to yield to the Lord.
Finally, they came to Mount Sinai. Moses went up on the mountain, and it was getting close to the end of those forty days. Of course, they did not know how long he was going to be up there. But they said, “Something has gone wrong. Moses must be dead. We need a deliverer.”
Instead of calling on God, what did they do? They made their own god: the golden calf. Aaron even helped them. They made the golden calf—the greatest offense to God, a foreign god—and they said, “He is our god.”
Brothers and sisters, it is almost hard to fathom, because of what God had already done for them, that they could still turn from Him and say, “We need another god, a god after our liking.” They rose up and had a great party, and there was great discipline afterward. Many perished.
That is the self-life. Let me explain why the Lord has to take us through this wilderness experience. He has to get at this self-life of ours. He has to get at the flesh. He has to expose it. It is a dark thing.
A brother said this morning—and I was really encouraged—“You know, Jerry, the Lord has been waking me up to see myself, and it is pretty ugly.” I said, “Amen.” When you really see what your self-life is, you have to agree: it is an ugly thing.
Brothers and sisters, that is our first battle, and the Lord purposely does this. I think our self-life, even more than Satan himself, is our greatest enemy, because Satan has to use our self-life to get us to sin and to turn from the Lord. That is the ground he has in us: our self-life.
So it has to be dealt with so that we no longer trust in it. Like Paul, we say, “I have no confidence in the flesh. I have no confidence in my eloquence. I have no confidence in my knowledge. The only thing I have confidence in is the Lord and for Him to speak through me.”
The flesh is unbelieving. The flesh does not believe the Lord. The flesh does not believe what the Lord has done for it. The flesh still wants to be in control. That is why they were brought into the wilderness.
Now, in Galatians 5, it is very clear: the Spirit and the flesh continually wrestle with each other. That is our first experience.
So how do we deal with it? This battle with the Amalekites shows us that the battle is really won in the heavenly realm.
Joshua had to actually fight the battle with his troops. It was a bloody battle, and they lost some lives in that battle. But the actual outcome of that battle did not depend on the skill and strength of Joshua’s warriors, even though they seemed to be pretty skilled.
It depended on Moses lifting up the rod—the rod of God’s authority—to the heavens. Brothers and sisters, what is that? It is having faith in what has been accomplished in heaven when you hold up that rod.
It is declaring that the victory has been won in Christ, even over my self-life. Therefore, when my self-life is exposed, I can deny it and let the cross do its work.
“Lord, You have crucified the flesh on Calvary’s cross. I stand in the good of what You have done, Lord. I will not let the flesh prevail.” That is what it means for the rod to be lifted up.
What I am trying to get at is that this battle you think you are going through with yourself—the outcome is really being determined by what has already been done in the heavens, in Christ, for you and on your behalf.
This matter of sin: Romans 6 says:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
That is what has already been accomplished in the heavenlies. We have been crucified with Christ, that we should no longer serve sin. In other words, the old man has been, as Brother Stephen used to say, unemployed. Sin used to control him, but now if the old man is out of the picture, sin has no one to control.
That is the secret: what has already happened in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find that we were crucified, but not only crucified—we were raised in Christ as a new man.
Romans 6:11 says:
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
For sin shall not have dominion over you.
Brothers and sisters, that word reckon, to me, is like lifting up the rod. Reckon means you can count on it. In other words, the Lord has done it. He has dealt with the flesh, and you can count on it.
But you have to have faith in that—not just faith in the doctrine. I think most of us here probably know these doctrines in Romans, but it is faith in the Lord. It is faith that He has done this, faith that He has set you free regardless of what you see inside of you.
What you see inside, honestly, will never change. That is why you have to crucify it. But you need to keep your eyes on Him up there in the heavenlies. That is where your victory is.
The Word of God is very clear: deny yourself and take up the cross. Well, how in the world can you deny yourself?
I think the answer is pretty simple. Only the life of Christ in you can deny self. So you are continually dependent on the Lord, just like the Israelites had to continually take the manna. They had to take of the water that the Lord provided them.
That was the way they overcame, brothers and sisters. In our lives, we need to learn to lift up the rod, and that basically means believing and declaring what Christ has already done on your behalf. If you believe it, then you can declare it, and that is lifting up the rod.
You might say that is the negative part of spiritual warfare: dealing with the flesh. If you want to be filled with the Spirit, you need to be emptied of self. That is the activity most of us experience.
Frankly, the self-life will be there until we go to be with the Lord. But it can be kept under because the victory has been won in Christ. You need to believe that. It is a declaration of faith.
That is the negative battle. But the positive battle is when they begin to enter the Promised Land. There is a difference. One is dealing with self; the next battle is actually entering the Promised Land, the land filled with milk and honey.
All the riches of Christ have been given to us in the heavenlies in Christ. Now we have to go into the heavenlies and possess our possessions in Christ. That is the next battle: entering the Promised Land.
The interesting thing about the nation of Israel entering the Promised Land is that it was not just a place they could go into, settle down, take over, and enjoy the fruits of the land—the milk, honey, and grapes. Why? Because there were enemies there: the Canaanites, the Amorites, and seven evil tribes.
According to Deuteronomy 9:5, God led Israel to dispossess His enemies who occupied the land and to inherit the promise. They had to destroy the enemy in order to possess their possessions.
In other words, brothers and sisters, we end up possessing our possessions—the positive part of spiritual warfare that is so necessary—through warfare and opposition. That may seem strange, but that is the way the Lord matures us.
So do not expect a life of ease, or you might find that you never get out of the wilderness.
I have mentioned the heavenlies a number of times. It is all secured in the heavenlies. Let me give you some Scriptures to hang your hat on here.
Ephesians 1:3 says that He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. All our spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places in Christ.
Ephesians 1:20 says God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in heavenly places.
Ephesians 2:6 says we who have been quickened have been raised up with Christ and seated with Christ in the heavenlies.
Ephesians 3:10 says the church is to demonstrate to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God. In other words, the church has a responsibility to demonstrate the principles of life in Christ to the good angels in the heavenlies.
Ephesians 6:12 says our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, authorities, universal lords of darkness, and spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies. These are the rebellious angels.
This is the heavenlies. This is the spiritual realm. Christ is there. The riches of Christ that we are to possess are there in Christ. The good angels are there; they are made to serve God and His purpose and to serve us. The wicked angels are there: lords of darkness, principalities, and powers, trying to keep us from coming in to possess our possessions in Christ.
This is the church’s responsibility. When the Lord revealed Himself to Peter, Peter said:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The Lord went on to say, “Peter, upon this rock, upon this confession, I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not prevail. I have given you the keys. Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Do you not think that is the charge to the church? In fact, if you go to Matthew 18, it talks about the local church and once again says, “Whatsoever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
We have that responsibility to bind and loose these things in the heavenly places, brothers and sisters. But they are in the heavenlies.
We must learn to operate and function in the heavenly realm, in the spiritual realm, by the Spirit. We are to take our place as good soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ and be involved in the heavenly life.
We need to learn to function in the heavenlies, to live in the heavenlies. Not that we do not still live on earth—we do—but by our spirit we touch the spiritual realm. We enter into the spiritual realm and are able to bind the things that are opposed to the Lord’s will.
What was the Lord’s prayer?
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
So heaven’s will needs to be brought down to earth. That is the responsibility of the church.
Brothers and sisters, it is a spiritual battle being carried on in the spiritual realm. It is not a war against flesh and blood. A lot of times we think our real problem is our work situation, our home situation, our husband or wife, or our children, who sometimes go way out.
Sometimes we are struggling with these things and not realizing that behind all these difficulties, the heavenlies are operating, and they are against you.
So we are not fighting against a brother or sister. We are not fighting against husband and wife. We need to take our stand with our victory that is in the heavens, in Christ, and loose the Lord’s will in our families, on this earth, in our work situations, and in whatever other circumstances might apply in your life.
It is God’s will that needs to be loosed.
Now, we experience all this personally, but the real battle is with the church. In Ephesians 6, that warrior is connected with everything that came before: God’s eternal purpose, His desire for a house, a royal priesthood. We are all called into that—building the house of God, being the body of Christ, being the royal priesthood.
But when we come to Ephesians 6, He is talking about warfare. In other words, these things are not secured just because you ask for them. It requires warfare to bring these things out.
That brings us to Joshua entering the Promised Land. I am covering a lot today. I am sorry, but we will see how far we can get. We want to learn about entering the heavenlies—the Promised Land—and how we are to operate.
The picture of Israel going into the Promised Land is us going into the heavenlies and gaining our riches in Christ. There are enemies to be defeated.
We know the first big battle they faced was Jericho. But there are some fundamental principles we need to learn before we go into battle and try to pull down strongholds.
In Joshua 1:5-9 and verse 18, the Lord says to Joshua:
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of a good courage.
Be strong and very courageous.
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.
Be strong and of a good courage.
Four times: strong and of good courage. This is a principle of warfare. We have to be strong in the Lord. We have to be courageous.
I think it is very interesting that He says, “Do not be afraid nor dismayed.” We have already talked about fear, so I will not say much more than this: fear disarms you. Fear makes you unable to fight. Fear makes you unable to overcome the enemy in your life.
That is why you cannot accept fear when you feel it coming upon you or into your life. Just say, “No. I plead the blood of Jesus Christ.” Do not accept fear.
The first time Israel came to the border of the Promised Land, the Lord told them it was time to go in. They looked at the giants, and what did they do? They feared. They would not go in, and they backed off.
So they had to wander around in the desert another thirty-eight years until that whole fearful generation passed away. The fearful ones never went in. Brothers and sisters, they saw the giants. Not only was there fear, but there was dismay.
I think dismay comes upon us a lot of times when we are expecting one thing and the opposite seems to occur. We are expecting the blessing of the Lord, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in trouble, or things have happened in our lives that are very disturbing to us. We think maybe the Lord is not in control here.
If you begin to get discouraged in the Lord, do not live with it. Do not let the discouragement linger. Please go back to the Lord and say, “Lord, I really do feel discouraged because of this situation, but Lord, I believe in You. You are the Victor. There is a reason for this, and I stand in Your victory, Lord. I am not going to let discouragement take me out.”
You may become dismayed because you expected something marvelous to happen and it did not occur. I have seen that sometimes with healing. People say, “Oh, I am going to be healed,” and they are not, and they become dismayed.
It is not that the Lord is not faithful. Max started with that this morning: regardless of what our circumstances are, we must rejoice in the Lord.
Dismay—I do not want you to come under it. When you sense you are in dismay, brothers and sisters, do not stay in that condition. Go back to the Lord. Go back to Him. He is the Victor. He is the One taking you into this Promised Land. He is the One who wants to share the riches of Himself with you.
That is the way we learn Christ: in these very difficult, tough places. But you cannot let fear, discouragement, or dismay take you out of the fight.
The second time they came, Joshua 1:2-3 and verse 9 give us the word of the Lord:
Arise, go over this Jordan.
I do give unto you the land.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee.
This is God’s Word. Now, under difficult circumstances, are we going to believe God’s Word? Or are we going to believe what we see and experience? That is the real test.
Brothers and sisters, I would encourage us all: this is spiritual warfare. The enemy wants to take you out. God has given us His Word that He will be with us and will not forsake us. He has promised that all the riches in Christ are ours, and we can possess them.
Everywhere the sole of your foot shall tread upon, He has given it to you. In other words, these are things we take one at a time, a step at a time. We do not get them all at once, but we experience Christ more and more—the fullness of Christ in our lives.
And then verse 9 says:
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee.
I hope we believe the Lord and not the enemy, and not even what we might experience. May we believe the Lord.
Secondly, they had to spy out the land. They were told to spy out the land in Joshua 2. They went to Rahab’s place, and do you know what she told them? She said, “Look, we are very fearful of you guys. Our hearts melted within us when we heard what happened at the Red Sea.”
They were afraid. The spies went back, and the Lord had given them some confidence that what He said was true: the enemy was afraid.
But who were they really afraid of? They were not so much afraid of Israel’s army. They were afraid because the ark was in their midst. The Lord was in their midst. That is what they were afraid of. They knew that the Lord, Israel’s God, had done this.
Our confidence must remain in Him and not ourselves.
That brings us to the ark crossing the Jordan River. That occurs in Joshua 3:15-16. When they got to the river, it was at flood stage. It was during the harvest, and every year around that time it flooded. It was at full flood stage.
Genesis 15:13 records that Abraham was told by God in prophecy, “You will go into Egypt, and your people will be in bondage for four hundred years. But I will bring them back to Canaan when the iniquity of the Amorites is full.”
The fullness of iniquity—that is what the Jordan River represents: the fullness of iniquity, the fullness of wickedness. These seven nations were wicked, and God was going to use Israel to destroy them and possess their possessions in the Promised Land.
But the point I want to make is that what they were really facing was all the forces of hell and darkness, represented by the overflowing Jordan River. The river was roaring. They could not cross it. They could not get into the Promised Land, into the heavenlies, because death was ruling.
So what did they do? The priests, who were responsible for the sacrifices for the sins of the people, lifted the ark upon their shoulders and stood in the edge of the waters.
The waters receded back for eighteen miles, up to the city of Adam—up to the old man. In other words, they had eighteen miles of dry land on which to cross over.
What is this telling us in preparing to enter the Promised Land? This is the victory in Christ’s death and resurrection. This is where Christ went down into hell and overcame all the forces of darkness.
Brothers and sisters, today it is because of His victory at the cross—over hell, death, Satan, the flesh, and the world—that we can enter the heavenlies. We can go in and partake of Christ.
So the foundation for being able to operate in the heavenlies, in the spiritual realm, is Christ’s victory. That is what it boils down to. That is what the overflowing Jordan River represents. Death in its most severe form is taken down, and they are able to cross over because of the ark—because of Christ.
The only way to operate in the heavens is to continually stand in Christ’s victory and work on the cross. That is your foundation. Always, you must believe it. It is more than a doctrine to be held.
A lot of us believe in these doctrines, but do we believe it is real? Do we really believe that we have this victory in Christ? Do we believe it? He has overcome death in your life. He has overcome these things. We have to learn in faith to stand on it—not just on the doctrine, but on Christ who accomplished these things.
The next preparation was that they were required to take twelve stones and bury them in the riverbed, then take twelve stones out of the riverbed to the other side of the Jordan River. This is in Joshua 4:8-9.
What is this? It is identification—identification with Christ. They set up a memorial with those twelve stones.
Brothers and sisters, it means that you have been crucified with Christ, that His death is your death, and His resurrection is your resurrection. You are identified with Christ.
You must always maintain your identity in Christ. If you think you can do it on your own, if you think you can live the Christian life apart from Christ in any way, you are greatly deceived.
The twelve stones left in the river and the twelve stones taken out speak of death and resurrection. That is our death and resurrection. It is our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection.
Now the Lord was still preparing them for Jericho. What was the next matter that they came up against? He told them, “I want you all to be circumcised.” Circumcision is in Joshua 5:2 and 9.
Circumcision is the cutting off of the flesh. It was a sign of the covenant that Israel made with the Lord.
There are two aspects to this. One is the cutting off of the flesh, saying, “I have no confidence in the flesh, but I have full confidence in the Lord. I have full confidence in the Word of the Lord, and I am separated unto Him.”
That is what circumcision means. A circumcised heart means you are separated to the Lord. You are His. Your calling is to follow Him, totally separated. You are in covenant with the Lord.
It is an interesting phrase when you read verse 9. Once they did that, God said, “Now the reproach of Egypt has been rolled away.” What in the world does that mean?
Remember what I shared at the beginning: their hearts were always ready to go back to Egypt. That is what they were like in the wilderness. They were always desiring to go back. They were double-hearted, double-minded people. They were not single-minded for the Lord.
The Lord was saying, “You have been totally cut off. You are separated now unto Me, and your hearts no longer have the desire for Egypt.”
The first generation had all been circumcised, but they all died in the wilderness. They were always yearning to go back to Egypt, even though they were slaves there. That was their heart. They had that double heart for the things of the world.
But the Lord was saying, “Now, this new generation”—which had never been circumcised—was circumcised to the Lord, dedicated to Him. That is what circumcision means.
So the heart had to be made right before they took on the battle of Jericho.
The Lord told them to be of good courage. They spied out the land and found out that the enemy’s heart had already melted. They had to experience the victory of Christ—that is the Jordan River. They had to identify with Christ’s death and resurrection through the twelve stones. They had to be circumcised: their flesh cut off and dedicated in covenant with God, separated unto Him and His service.
Then we come to the last thing—perhaps not all the things, but the important thing that I have here. They needed to know the Commander in Chief.
Joshua 5:13-14 tells us that Joshua was the leader of that army. They were about to assault Jericho, which was the gateway to the Promised Land. That stronghold was the gateway to the heavenlies.
Joshua was out surveying the city, trying to find a weakness, trying to find a way in, trying to develop a strategy for attacking the stronghold of Jericho.
All of a sudden, he was confronted by a man standing before him with his sword drawn. Joshua, being a good soldier and commander, challenged this man. He said, “Who are you? Are you for us or against us?”
The man replied, “I am neither for you nor against you, but I have come as captain of the host of the army of the Lord.”
Brothers and sisters, immediately Joshua fell on his face. He realized this was the Lord. This was the real Commander in Chief.
Christ is the Commander in Chief. We need to always remember that Christ is the Commander in Chief in this matter of spiritual warfare. Only He can show us how to take on the lords of darkness in the spiritual realm.
Joshua would have never figured out a battle plan to take Jericho. It was impregnable.
Thankfully, he immediately recognized the Lord, fell down, and submitted to Him. Then he was given the strategy to take the city. Christ provided him with that strategy.
There are three points. First, he recognized who the Commander in Chief is. If you have no Commander in Chief in warfare, brothers and sisters, you are on your own. You are not pulling together. You are lost. You are not going to have the proper battle plan.
Second, Joshua submitted to the Lord. He did not tell the Lord, “Look, I think I figured it out. I think there might be a way.” He simply submitted to the Lord: “You are the Commander in Chief. Take charge.”
Third, Joshua received the battle plan. Brothers and sisters, that is the real secret: to know that you have a Commander in Chief.
Next time, I want to talk about casting down strongholds. We are going to talk about the strategy to overcome Jericho and also that great battle that will occur in the heavenlies when the angels of God cast out Satan and his angels.
Two great strongholds: the enemy has his stronghold in the atmosphere around this earth, and it has to come down. Jericho points to that battle.
But today, remember the things we have talked about. This spiritual warfare is real. It is spiritual, not fleshly. It is our wrestling against principalities and powers, not flesh and blood.
We need to be aware of this warfare, of the heavenlies where everything is obtained. Remember, the great lesson we learn from the book of Daniel is that the heavens do rule over the affairs of men.
Brothers and sisters, we need to learn that personally in our lives and corporately in the church. We need to know our enemy. We need to know ourselves, that we might not have any confidence in our flesh.
We need to learn and experience the victory of Christ that He achieved at Calvary’s cross and over the grave in death. His victory is now our victory. We need to live in the good of that, to believe that—not just to believe in the doctrine.
The twelve stones speak of identification with Christ. Brothers and sisters, we have to continually identify that we have been crucified with Christ and raised with Him.
They set up a memorial with those twelve stones. I kind of think that is like our baptism. You should be able to look back to your baptism and say, “In my heart, I went down in those waters. Jerry Amon passed away with Christ, but he has risen a new man in Christ.” That is your memorial.
Circumcision means you have been separated unto the Lord. You depend on Him and not your flesh. And lastly, recognize and submit to your Commander in Chief.
Lord, we just come today. Lord, there is so much in Your Word, but I just pray that whatever You have for anyone today that might really be a help would awaken us all to what we are involved in here in these last days.
May You have that instrument that You are after—that prayer warrior, Lord, who can stand in Your victory and bring the will of God down to earth. Lord, so be it. May it be so, Lord, in Jesus’ name.